Jesse Valach & Blues Mountain

Jesse Valach from Blues Mountain is a) one of the nicest blokes that you will ever have the chance to meet and b) one of the best blues players in the Melbourne and Australian music scene. Since moving over to Australia after growing up in New Zealand, Valach made his mark on the Australian music scene when he moved initially to WA and then to Melbourne, where he currently resides. What makes him stand out from all of the other guitar players, in what can sometimes be described as an overpopulation of guitarists in groups, is the soul and feeling that he puts into the grooves and lead breaks of his original material.
Like many other artists before him, like Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, he has a distinct style to performing that is both infectious to watch and instantly recognisable when you hear it. Having just released Separation Street, the highly anticipated follow-up to the scintillating self titled debut, he has had a cracker 2015 as we begin to chat.
“Mate! We have just played at Bendigo Blues and it was a great festival. The turnouts were awesome and we have been really lucky enough to play there two years in a row. There are so many blues loving people up in Bendigo, so that made it all the more special,” Valach says.
When a band releases a debut record that knocks everything else out of the park, there is considerable pressure to follow it up the next time around. On Separation Street, there is a lot more instrumentation coming into the mix, which has allowed Valach to branch out and be a little more creative with his song arrangements.
“Funnily enough, it was actually quite a quick process and I had a lot of the songs running around in my head for a while. We went into rehearsal for a week and then hit the studio to record it all live and smashed it out. We recorded down in Altona and got a lot of guests in at the end to polish it up, it was a very fun process.”
With the second album climbing up the Australian blues charts, Valach is already in the writing process once again. It’s early days yet and its in talking about this that Valach lets slip about another exciting project that he is working on. “At the moment I am working on getting a reggae band together that I’ll be fronting. It’s a 10-piece band and hopefully we can release something next year, so keep your eyes open.”
Like many artists before him, Jesse Valach and the Blues Mountain are going to be hitting the stage of Bluestone Festival over New Years Eve run by the Sleepy Hollows Blues Committee at Murgheboluc. In Valach’s eyes, it is the perfect way to end 2015. There were rumours that Valach was playing solo for this show, however he states that he is a band leader through and through. “I tend not to do solo shows much and I am always playing with the band. I’ve played a few times at Bluestone and it is always a great festival. I can’t wait to finish the year up there and then head into the studio next year to bring to life the new album. Think Separation Street but twice as big.”
Written by Tex Miller
When & Where: Bluestone, Murgheboluc Reserve – December 31-January 1